Cape Town – Zimbabwean ministers and traditional leaders who were fronting white ex-commercial farmers could lose their farms, President Robert Mugabe has warned, according to a report.

Mugabe said this as he opened a new chapter in the country's controversial land reform programme where he said there was no land for whites in Zimbabwe. Mugabe on Wednesday launched A1 settlement permits, which ensure that farmers have security of tenure.

The permits allow new farmers to access agricultural funding from financial institutions.

According to the News Day, Mugabe accused his lieutenants of "supping with whites" and vowed that no farmland would be returned to whites again.

Fast-track land reform programme

Mugabe's remarks came following reports that some of his ministers and chiefs were leasing their farms to whites while others were under-utilising the land allocated to them during the fast-track land reform programme.

Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party launched the land reforms in 2000, taking over white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

At the time, Mugabe said the reforms were meant to correct colonial land ownership imbalances.

At least 4 000 white commercial farmers were evicted from their farms.

International isolation

Mugabe warned people against inviting white former commercial farmers back to the land, saying action would be taken against those who breached regulations, a Herald report said.

The veteran leader chronicled the long road Zimbabwe travelled in a bid to regain its land, saying the journey had been marked by untenable laws and international isolation at the behest of Britain.

He said Britain tried all dirty tricks to frustrate the process, but Zimbabwe remained resolute and the permits were an assertion of the ownership of land by indigenous people, the Herald said.

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